Calling time on a jet-setting lifestyle

Sylvia Pennington

Expense accounts, exotic locales, global experience that exceeds opportunities in Australia – working as a country-hopping IT expert has its perks but does the corporate nomad lifestyle inevitably pall?

Contractors account for around 40 per cent of Australia's 220,000-strong information technology workforce, according to recruitment agency Peoplebank.

For those with in-demand enterprise software, programming or project management skills, landing off-shore gigs can be lucrative and tempting.

One-time contractor Stuart Avery says five years was his dizzy limit on the road before deciding to hang up his garment bag for good.

Now a senior technical quality manager with SAP in Sydney, he spent half a decade contracting out of Hong Kong, in a role that saw him travelling between projects on three continents, up to 240 days a year.

“You need to look at what that does to you from a lifestyle perspective,” Avery says.

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“It does completely screw up any social calendar. You can't commit to anything – you think you can but you can't. Whilst the perks are great and it's nice to be upgraded to first class, that loses its shine after a while. You can only do [it] for a certain amount of time. You start getting really, really worn down after four or five years.”

Java programmer Ganesh Krishnan has been on the move for longer. He's done extended stints in London, New York, California, Switzerland and Melbourne over the past 14 years and says his feet remain itchy.

“We're always excited about being in a new place – it's all about the next step,” Krishnan says.

“You get used to a new place and you're already making plans. Settling down is more stressful than moving regularly. Things become [routine] and you don't appreciate them.”

A peripatetic lifestyle can be difficult to sustain long term, says organisational psychologist Helen Crossing.

“People are different in the degree to which they seek out novelty and are willing to deal with issues associated with building new relationships, only to have to leave them behind,” Crossing says.

“People who find it easy to adapt are more likely to be open minded, interested in novelty and different cultures. Being emotionally resilient will also make it easy for people. If people are highly anxious, they may do one or two stints and then come home.”

To stay the country-hopping course requires a certain sort of personality, agrees IT recruiter Jonathan Chapman, an associate director at Robert Half Technology.

Typically, it's the polar opposite of the shrinking violet. Successful international contractors tend to be assertive, politically astute, articulate and outcome focused.

While those who aren't up to the challenge of continually networking and adapting to new environments tend to drop out fairly quickly, those who can hack the pace tend to stay on.

Major lifestyle changes – buying a house, getting married, expecting a child – are what prompt many to pull the pin. Others look for professional satisfaction that isn't always possible when contracting – the fulfilment that comes from being part of a company and a team and seeing a project all the way through.

“Sometimes contractors are only brought in to work on one phase of a larger project so they don't always get the satisfaction of seeing the final product,” Chapman says.

Are you a retired country hopper or thinking of becoming one? Do the pros of the corporate nomad lifestyle outweigh the cons?